Star Trek: Ensigns Episode III: Suddenly
by jaimemventers
Summary: Star Trek Ensigns is a series following the lives of Four recent graduates of Star Fleet Academy. all characters are original, I don't own Star Trek, don't sue me.


**Star Trek: Ensigns**

**Episode III: Suddenly…**

An aged Star fleet Captain sits at a high desk, with two commanders, one at each side. Each of the three men is dressed in a very formal Star Fleet uniform. Below them stands a skinny young man wearing a blue jump suit. There is another young man seated behind him at a desk to the left, and a young woman behind a desk to the right.

"Stardate 45753.1. Official Court martial hearing for Ensign Daniel McLaren formerly of the USS Alaska. Ensign McLaren, you are charged with dereliction of duties on stardate 45333 resulting in the loss of lives of over 2000 crewmembers as well as destruction of star fleet property. Ensign McLaren, how do you plead? "

Daniel looked up to the judge, blinked slowly once, his mouth opened, and he said "Guilty, your honor."

"Very well then, you are hereby sentenced to the New Botany Bay penal colony for a period of no less than ninety nine years without the possibility of parole to begin immediately." The judge's gavel rose and as it struck the wooden plate below a slow soft beep sounded. It grew in volume and intensity with each strike, until Daniel woke up. He was alone; it had been a week since he had anyone sharing his bed. He tapped a button next to his bed to silence the alarm and grabbed a clean uniform and his toiletries bag before heading off to the shower. He'd been having this same reoccurring dream that he prayed wasn't prophetic. Ulrik was in there living room, reading a PADD with the daily news headlines and eating breakfast, already showered and dressed. "Good Morning Daniel." He said between bites of toast.

"Good Morning Ulrik. Have you heard where we're heading?"

"Nothing yet. Everything is hush hush still, no communications allowed off ship for anyone and no updates as to where we are or where we're going. Astronomy and Cartography are shut down. I heard you guys on the bridge aren't even told anything more than adjustments to direction and speed."

"Yeah, we're flying blind and command and security have been ordered not to talk even socially. I haven't seen Bera off the bridge in three days. Are you sure that Commander Foster isn't running an elaborate experiment on the whole ship?"

"Oh good grief, Seja asked the same thing last nigh. Bera's frustration is showing. She almost put her own head through a replicator yesterday when the coffee it gave her wasn't sweet enough. "

"Wow. Well, if you see her say hi for me please." said Daniel as he headed off to the shower.

"I will" replied Ulrik. He finished breakfast, cleaned up his plates and crumbs, placing them in the replicator before heading out to science. He'd been approved to do a study of the charge on particles at warp, basically he'd be using ship scanners to study particle matter and gases as they traveled from the frontal edge of the warp field surrounding the ship to the end of the warp field to see what changes occurred in the charge and spin. This should help further research on the detrimental effects of warp speed travel, and maybe help them all figure out how not to damage space while traveling through it. Arriving at the doors to the science lab he was stopped by a security officer and asked for his name, once they checked him against a data pad they had he was allowed in. Ulrik walked in passing the main view screen on his way to his desk. The main view screen was blank except for the federation logo, normally when it wasn't being actively used it would show current location, a star chart and give a graph of where they were headed.

The astronomy workstation was also turned off, with chief of science Starling sitting at it looking very depressed. She loved the stars and spent all the time she could studying them. Now she sat at her favorite station, sipping tea and staring at a non functional console. This is how it had been for nearly half the week, ever since the captain had received a priority secured communication directly from Star Fleet Headquarters. The existence of such a transmission was a closely guarded secret, and therefore known to everyone. What was unknown to anyone except the captain and first officer was what was in the transmission, although according to Seja the transmission had come from Commodore Tarns in Star Fleet Intelligence, who was rumored to be at least a sympathizer for Section 31. Starling stood up, straightened her uniform, walked over to one of the other science officers to tell him he was in charge till she got and headed to the door.

Starling walked out of science just as the security personnel were switching out who was on duty, the two security personnel on duty were a Human male and a Vulcan female, they were briefing a Human male and a Bolian female. They noticed Starling as she left, she waved to them and they waved back. Starling was heading to the nearest ships restroom and then possibly to her quarters for a book. She was highly irritated with Star Fleet right now for practically shutting down science and she was irritated at herself for this position. She had been offered the Captains chair on a pure science vessel and she was desperately wishing she had taken the job. "I bet the U.S.S. Tesla doesn't have to do any skulking about, their officers can probably spend all day scanning stars and can call their grandchildren whenever they want." She mumbled to herself as she headed into the restroom. As she walked in she nearly bumped into one of the nurses that was leaving the facilities, "Sorry, ma'am" said the nurse, Starling just nodded and kept walking.

The nurse headed to the turbo lift, to head to sickbay. She was hoping Dr Neric would be on duty, he was a delight to work around, but suspected she'd be under the watchful and curmudgeonly eye of Dr Sarel. How any Vulcan could be that much a pain in the rear was beyond her, she thought. She arrived at sickbay, saw Dr Sarel at his desk and she felt like turning back around and heading home. "Lieutenant Hopkins, come here please." He said. She walked into his office, stood at attention, and said "sir, yes sir"

"I will be leaving in about an hour for the rest of the day. There will be about a six hour gap until Dr Neric comes on duty, you will be in charge. As there is unlikely to be any need for medical staff during that period I will expect you to take that time to sterilize the equipment and the medical beds. After that please read the report on the new filing system I created last month, I do not believe you have been using it yet" he said.

"Sir? I've been using the standard Starfleet filing system that we're required to-"she began to say before he cut her off.

"That system is not adequate. It is over three years old and inefficient. If you read my report you will see how my system is a vast improvement in efficiency and will be adopted by the fleet as soon as they recognize its merit. Your own efficiency should improve at least two percent if you implement this in your personal life as I've recommended. Do not be difficult, I am helping you." He replied.

"Yes sir"

"You are dismissed."

"Sir, yes sir" she replied and headed out of his office to begin sterilizing. Time dragged on. Dr. Sarel stood up, straightened his uniform, gave a brief and disapproving glance at Lieutenant Hopkins and left. Fifteen minutes later sterilization was complete and Lisa Hopkins was sitting at the nurses' duty station, trying not to fall asleep while reading the report, realizing that she was fifty-three pages into it and still on the introduction. She began trying to skip ahead, but the Dr had installed security measures to prevent moving forward more than one word at a time, she would have to read the entire report for her PADD to register that she had even touched it. This was going to be a long night. She began dosing off when she felt something different in the ship. She had to concentrate, but through all the motion and sound dampening devices built into this behemoth, she could tell that the ship and come to a stop.

"Away team Delta to transporter room 3" was the announcement heard throughout the ship.

"Delta? Who's on Delta?" said Lieutenant Rister to Seja.

"My roommate Bera is one of the security people for Delta, I believe Commander Valientine and Nurse G'nkor are also Delta, I'm not sure who Delta's science person is, possibly Lieutenant Squin."

"Nobody from Engineering though?" asked Rister

"Not that I'm aware of. You're on Beta, correct?"

"Uh, I don't know, that's why I was asking you."

"Rister, how did you make it this far in Star Fleet?"

"Lucky I guess. Plus I have two brothers in the fleet and my mom is one of the heads at Utopia Planitia. It's on Mars. Did you hear Lieutenant Commander Tourej was given me and Limmer a special assignment? Something about a long term research project with the escape pods." Said Rister, dreamily

"Interesting, I think you two deserve that opportunity. I need to go check a conduit. See you around." Seja said, standing up from her seat at the computer monitoring station and grabbing a tool kit before leaving engineering. Seja walked rapidly to the turbolift and went up to deck twelve. The conduit that needed to be checked was in a wall near the transporter rooms, it wouldn't affect the transporters in any way (the errors were manifesting in a replicator on the other side which was randomly spitting out footwear whenever someone entered the room it was in.) as she worked on it the door to transporter room three opened and Lieutenant Squin stepped out into the hall, leaned against the wall and started sobbing. Seja had finished with the conduit; a small metal fiber was connecting two paths inappropriately and went over to Squin.

"What's wrong?" asked Seja

"Commander Valientine. He told me he didn't need me on this assignment and that I should go back to my quarters." Replied Squin

"It's just one mission…" said Seja

"You don't understand! It's so hard for science people to get anywhere! I need as many away team missions as I can get, otherwise I'm going to be a Lieutenant forever!" replied Squin

"Lieutenant-Betty, it will be ok, just calm down, relax, breathe. Did he say why he didn't need you?" said Seja

"He said that this was a special operation. Security and command only. How can science not be needed? I could scan for hostile activity. I've used a phaser once." Said Betty

"Betty, let me walk you back to your quarters, I'm going on lunch, and we can talk." Said Seja as the two women turned to head towards the turbo shaft. They continued to talk as they walked down the hallway.

"Okay. I hope this isn't too personal, but how were scientists viewed amongst Romulans? Were they treated badly?"

"Betty, I'm going to tell you something that most people don't realize. You've heard the heroic stories of me and my mother high-jacking a ship and rescuing hundreds of Romulans who wanted to escape the empire hours before a supernova reduced Romulus to dust, right? My mother was the Captain of a Romulan science vessel, not a warbird. Everyone on board was a scientist in some regard; she mainly studied algae throughout the Empire. There were lots of times her research, her ship, her relevance in the Empire were either questioned or ignored, but she still rose through the ranks to become a captain and when the time came, to rescue those in need. Do yourself a favor; let yourself shine in your own way. The captain is a smart woman, she will see you when you are yourself, and you will have away team missions in the future. Don't worry." Seja said as they entered the turbo lift "Deck fourteen" Seja called out.

"You're right, I just feel… well, pressured. Marks become very career minded and he's trying to motivate me in that regard too." Betty said. The turbo lift stopped and they got off, continuing their discussion while walking.

"Mark?" Seja asked

"My fiancée. Lieutenant Mark Pulaski, he's one of the nurses." She said as they stopped at the door to Betty's room. "He's really a great guy. We got engaged eight months ago, we were both serving on deep space 11. He heard about the Alaska nearing completion and we both asked to come here, we're a package deal now. Are you seeing anyone?" Betty asked.

"Not at the moment" said Seja.

"Okay. I heard rumors about you and Dr Neric." She said with a smile

"Dr Neric and I are just friends. We had dinner once, but we're just friends."

"That's a shame, he's a cutie. You really should try to find a guy, bag one while you're still young, I've heard that statistically, women in engineering are thirty percent less likely to find a mate, forty percent if they work with the computers." She said as she entered her quarters.

"I'm really not looking to settle down anytime soon. I'm sure I'll meet someone when the time comes, but not yet." Seja said, trying to not get angry.

"Okay, well, I'll see you around" Betty said as the door closed

"Right" replied Seja, turning to head for her quarters. She walked through the door to her quarters and over to the replicator. "Viinerine" she said

"Unable to comply, no such item found in star fleet database" replied the computer.

"Computer I've programmed you with that recipe three times since coming on board. Access file Ch'undana family recipes, incorporate recipe list, replicate recipe Viinerine" said Seja.

"Working…unable to comply, data may be corrupted" replied the computer

"Okay, fine, if you want to play that way, we will." She said as she walked over to the terminal and began manually entering the recipe. "Computer, has my mother called or sent any messages?" Seja asked.

"No messages received from Ch'undana Suna" replied the computer

"Computer call Ch'undana Suna" said Seja

"Unable to comply due to current security measures" replied the computer

"Right, I should have remembered." She said sitting down with an exasperated expression.

She then heard the voice of commander Valientine over the ships communications system "Dr Neric to sickbay immediately, incoming wounded"

One minute after that Dr Neric was standing in sickbay, a dermal regenerating tool in one hand held up to the chest of Bera. "So what happened exactly, ensign."

"We had just finished the mission; we were going to head back up when Commander Valientine saw something moving near the entrance to one of the caves. He asked me to check it out, and when I got there I didn't see it. I turned and there it was sitting on a rocky protrusion, some furry rodent like creature, it was bigger than my head and tried to bite it off."

"And that's when Lieutenant Rozenski shot you?"

"That was an accident, and he shot the creature first. It keeled over so I bent over to check it out, and then it bit me."

"In the breast?"

"Yes, and it wouldn't let go, so Lieutenant Rozenski shot at it, and missed, hitting me in the shoulder. I was knocked down and then Commander Valientine grabbed it by the head and got it to release."

"So what was the creature?"

"We don't know what it was, but it wasn't what we're after."

"Which is?"

"You know I can't tell you that doc, top secret."

"Right. So where was your science person?"

"Commander Valientine told her not to come with. Guess she could have been useful in identifying dangerous local wildlife."

"Okay ensign. I'm giving you a local anesthetic, keep the area clean and free of irritation, and you're ready for duty. I'd recommend getting another uniform top-you're showing through where it bit into that one. If any unusual swelling or irritation occur, let me know." He said

"Thanks doc." She replied as she stood up and headed out the door, keeping one hand over her left breast. She walked out into the hallway to find Lieutenant Register waiting for her.

"You okay?" he asked

"Yeah, fine, I need a new top, darn thing bit right through." She said

"Ok. Did the doc ask where we were or anything?"

"Only what we were looking for, I didn't say."

"Good. So why did Xavier send the science officer away?"

"He said she wasn't needed, but if she had been with I think she might have told us what the creature was without this incident."

"I'm going to have to talk to him. She might have figured out where we are, but I can't have him putting my people at unnecessary risks because of his prejudices."

"Prejudices? I don't understand."

"Don't let what I'm about to say interfere with command structure, he's still a superior officer, respect that and him. Xavier thinks Star Fleet would be better off as a pure military body, without any science."

"Wow. So do we know how long ago they left the site?"

"No more than two hours ago, and we got a warp trail, we know where they are headed."

"Good."

"Maybe. We might have to cross another border."

"Um, should you be telling me that?"

"You got bit by a Naussican muskrat; when one of my people gets injured, especially from command mistakes, I think they deserve info. Plus, you might be helpful in understanding local geography. We are heading into Breen space. Your dad did some trading with the Breen, correct?"

"Yes sir. I know the border pretty well, but not much more than about 60 Kilometers past that. Breen are a bit territorial and paranoid."

"We think the target has a base on an asteroid in a really dense asteroid field fairly close to the border."

"Pirates' Avalanche."

"What?"

"It's the local name for the asteroid pocket that you're talking about. Pirates often chase local merchants up to it but won't enter; there are legends about the asteroids in there hunting down any pirate ships that enter, plus the main elements in the area are a form of Iron oxide and silicate that react badly to transporter signals, anyone beaming in is instantly absorbed. I know it pretty well, local shippers would have to head through there sometimes, my dad taught me to fly using that as the training ground."

"Sounds pretty dangerous to me."

"Not after you get a hang of it. I'm not sure the Alaska could fit into it, she's pretty big."

"We don't have a shuttlecraft well armored enough to risk it." He said

"We have the Diomede. Not much armor but the best sensors a shuttle can have and it has a cloak. "

"So we take a commando squad in cloaked to get this guy? Not happening."

"I was thinking a recon team to check the area first, assess their strength, and then if we have the manpower we take them down. If not we send a secure message to Starfleet asking for a few Defiant class ships loaded with Commandos, maybe an elite unit like the Omegas."

"I like the way you think ensign. I'd like you in on the briefing we're having later today. Write those ideas down so we can present them to the captain. Come to the Captain's office ready to present by 18:00." He headed off towards the turbo lift; she turned and went into her room.

Seja had apparently been in there, she rarely left physical evidence of it but there was a slight disturbed feel to the living room, most likely she came in, had lunch, worked on the computer, and then went back to engineering thought Bera as she changed her uniform top. "I wonder who she's going out with tonight, and when she's going to admit to herself that she's dating two men at once." She said to herself. "Computer, open the ongoing diary log to my father. Dad, I'm having quite an adventure here, I wish you could see me. I'm alright but I did get attacked by a rodent while on an away team mission. We're going to be going through some of your old stomping grounds. I'm not sure that I'll be able to visit your grave on the anniversary date this year, but I'll make sure flowers are delivered. I love and miss you." She looked at a picture she had on her nightstand of herself with her father. "I'll never forget how you always told me to follow my dreams even when that meant mixed martial arts and cage fighting. I'll never forget how you were at all my championship matches when I won, except for the last. I'd still be champ if I hadn't had to turn states evidence in your murder investigation. I'll never forgive the Orion Syndicate for asking me to throw the match and I'm very grateful that most of the dons that were on Bolarus are now serving hard time. I'll never forgive them for threatening you, and I'll never forgive Don Tu-Tone for your death, but at least he's serving life in prison and your little girl is searching the galaxy for a terrorist and being ravaged by rampaging rodents. Log end, " she said, putting her new top on. Her communicator chimed and she heard Lieutenant DePalma's voice "Ensign Bera, you're needed on deck 39 section F, code 1-8." "Yes Sir!" she called back as she walked out of her room.

She walked down to the turbo lift got in and said "deck 39 please". The turbo lift started going downward, she checked her phaser to make sure it was fully powered and set to stun. The Turbo lift stopped and the doors opened, she was on deck 30 and Lieutenant Vermillion got on. He looked at her with a friendly smile and said "Ensign." She responded with a nod and said "Sir". Lieutenant Vermillion turned to face the door saying "deck 41". The doors closed and the turbo lift continued, stopping next at deck 39, with Bera exiting. The Turbolift continued on down to deck 41 with Lieutenant Vermillion exiting when it stopped. He walked to the nearest Jefferies tube, opened the hatch and started climbing down. He exited at deck 55, the lowest deck on the ship, walking down to the end of the corridor where there were two armed guards standing at attention next to a red door. He walk up to the door, one of the guards drew out a tricorder while the other aimed his phase rifle. After being scanned one guard nodded to the other and Lieutenant Vermillion passed through the red door. He stayed in the room for less than five minutes before coming out, holding an isolinear optical data rod. He walked over to the nearest turbo lift, entered and said "deck twenty".

The turbo lift started heading up stopping at deck twenty. He walked out of the turbo lift and down the hall for a while; deck twenty was one of the longest on this ship, halfway down the saucer section. Lieutenant Vermillion walked up to another door that was being guarded, this time the door was labeled "Navigational Deflector access: Authorized personnel only". He again was scanned by one Guard while the other one aimed a rifle at him, taking the weapon away only after his companion said "he's good". Inside there was only one person, Seja was sitting on the floor with a plasma wielder in one hand, a tricorder in another and part of a cable being held between her teeth. "Now I see why Tourej was so excited to get you onto this ship, you and her are the only individuals I've ever seen willing to hold a live plasma cable in their mouths." Seja turned her head and smiled at him, turning off and putting down the torch before taking the cable out of her mouth. "Its actually quite safe if you know where to bite and you can control your drooling. I'm almost done, I'll assume you need the contents of that data rod transmitted like the others, as background static with a specific radiation signature." she said as she plugged the plasma cable back into its port and checked it with the tricorder.

"Yes ensign. So Romulan ships would often do data transmissions like this while on stealth missions?" he said. "Well, when a Romulan ship goes on a stealth mission it's not unheard of for them to spend over two years without contacting anyone. As far as using this method of data dumping, I honestly don't know for sure, I can only go by what my mother taught me. Remember I wasn't old enough for Imperial service when I left the homeworld, I was still climbing trees and playing with model ships." She said, as she closed the door to the machine she was working on. She stood up and walked over to him taking the rod out of his hand and walking over to another terminal, inserting it in a recently added port. She began pressing various buttons on the terminal to alter the signature of the transmission. After a few minutes she looked up at the wave form graph for the data and compared it to ambient energy signatures displayed on a neighboring graph, they were virtually identical. "Okay, I've done it, your turn." She said as she stood up and stepped away from the console. Lieutenant Vermillion came over and sat down in the chair. "Computer transmit file xj-7634 Omega Romeo, security authorization alpha niner one one two."

"Voice print security clearance accepted. Transmission sent."

"Thank you Ensign, now as I said before-"he began to say before she cut him off.

"This never happened. I need to head back to engineering. I think Stohlz is next on duty." She said as she walked out of the room and headed to main engineering.

"Captain, the bottle has been dropped into the ocean," said the Lieutenant.

"Thank you Lieutenant" was the response from the Captain.

Now, Commander, your report on the mental fitness of the crew" said the Captain.

"The number of appointments in my calendar has doubled, reports of assault have gone up by a third, there have been reports of petty theft and vandalism in all quarters, the social fabric of the ship is rapidly unweaving. In my opinion, Captain, the crew is all too new to this ship and to one another to handle complete isolation from external interaction or social diversion. Captain, they are adapting to this situation very poorly, and I predict that unless we start allowing holodeck time or some sort of distraction there will be some form of violent action on this ship within the next 48 hours" said Commander Foster.

"Andrei, I really wish I could, but it's simply out of the question. This is a stealth mission, no outside communications and holodecks are cut off for a reason, their energy signature is too specific for this classified of a mission. Maybe we can think of something else, an impromptu recital in the lounge maybe? A theatrical production?"

"Without the props or scenery of the holodeck? I can see it now, we'll take Death of a Salesman and rename it Death of a Star Fleet Counselor" replied the Commander.

"Look, I know you can do this, I picked you especially for this ship because you're used to helping with orientation to new ships. You were one of the top counselors at star fleet academy for four years. You had a brilliant internship at starbase 12. I have confidence in you" she said.

"One more thing Captain, regarding Dr Sarel. He is currently refusing further testing but based on his most recent psychological profile I suspect he may be in the early stages of Bendii Syndrome. Normally I would not mention this without his consent, but as it does affect non Vulcans telepathically he could be considered a risk to the entire ship, " reported Commander Foster.

"Thank you Counselor. I will order him to have the proper testing. Dismissed." she said.

"Yes Ma'am." He said. He stepped out of the captain's office and walked over to the turbo lift. "Commander Foster to Commander Tourej," he said when the doors closed.

"Tourej here"

"My apologies about being late, I'll be at my office in a few minutes."

"Not a problem, I've been a bit preoccupied, I just arrived at your door. I'm hoping Seja gets down there before Rister blows anything up, " she said.

After reaching engineering she stored her toolkit. "Hey Rister, have you seen Tourej around?" she asked "No, and I hope it stays that way, "he replied before wandering off to look busy elsewhere.

"right." she said while rolling her eyes.

She checked the duty log for critical computer maintenance requests, other than minor system glitches there was nothing interesting going on, all the interesting repairs and diagnostics had been claimed by the rest of the engineering staff, even Limmer and Rister had full duty lists. Next she checked for any general engineering maintenance requests. Everything seemed to be running smoothly except for a few replicator issues that were an ongoing issue she couldn't really deal with. The only thing left do deal with was running minor system diagnostics on the main computer and the bio-neural systems. "Seja to Tourej, come in please"

"Tourej here, what do you need?"

"The jobs queue is pretty much empty, do you want me to start running system diagnostics on main computer and the bio-neural systems or do you have anything else for me to do."

"Go ahead and start checking the bio-neural systems on deck twenty five, there's one or two I think might have a minor infection. You'll need to get someone from either science or medical to assist, your boyfriend might be willing to help." She said with mischief in mind.

"He's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend" she replied, slight irritation in her voice.

"Okay, if you say so. Tourej out. "

Seja checked to make sure her tricorder had a full charge and grabbed her toolkit before she headed to the turbo lift. She entered and said "deck fourteen". The turbo lift started up and then after a few moments stopped. She waited for the doors to open but they didn't. She walked up to the door hoping to trip the sensor but it stayed firmly shut. She tried walking up to the door a few more times with no success. She considered calling for help but the though of an engineer being stuck in a turbolift and rescued by another engineer was mortifying. No, she though, I can either fix it myself or get myself out of here. She scanned the floor to see if anything in the machinery beneath her feet looked erroneous, all looked good. She asked the computer if anything was wrong with this or any other turbolift, it said no. she looked up at the ceiling and said out loud "computer, why has this turbolift stopped?" it replied with "unknown, potential debris in shaft would you like to file a service request?" "No, thank you" was her reply. Finally she placed her toolkit on the ground and stood on it, using it to reach the service hatch at the top of the lift capsule. She opened it and then got down, using her tricorder and flashlight to look before climbing through the hole into the dark and unknown. She could see the doorway to deck fourteen, which meant the turbolift had stopped between levels fourteen and fifteen. She took off her boots and tossed them up through the access hatch before climbing up on her toolkit and grabbing the edges of the hatch. She began to pull herself up, hanging onto her toolkit with her toes. Finally she was able to sit on the top of the capsule and take a look around.

There was nothing obvious from this end that would be jamming the capsules movements. She walked to the edge of the lift and shined her light down to see if anything were jammed between the shaft wall and the capsule. She began slowly walking around the top. Once she got about three quarters of the way around the lift she found what was jamming it, there was a humanoid skull staring up at her from between the lift and the shaft. She immediately called security and let them know what was going on and what she had found. Within five minutes they had the door to level fourteen open and her out, with a security and medical team in the shaft investigating.

Seja went down to sickbay finding it with only one occupant, Lieutenant Myrus. "Lieutenant, I need assistance, I need to run diagnostics on potentially infected bio-neural conduits." She said

"Oh God, slime duty? I haven't had to do that since I was an ensign. Can't I just hand you a hypo with a general anti biotic?" she said

"Only if you want to ruin half the systems in the-"she began to reply

"I know I know. Look, Doctor Neric will be back in a few minutes, he went to check on a few patients that can't get out of bed, "she said.

"Why can't they get out of bed?" Seja asked.

"Three are pregnant civilians and are lazy; one is a stubborn admiral that doesn't want to go to hospice. He'd rather live out his days on the ship he designed." She said with a bored look in her face.

"Ah. Do you mind if I wait here for the doctor?" she replied, hiding her distain for the nurse's flippant attitude.

"Go right ahead. You can park your butt wherever you want." The lieutenant said.

"Okay." Seja said.

"So, what's the doc like off duty?" She asked, smiling.

"Doctor Neric? Friendly, kind, witty. He's a good friend."

"Is he a good kisser?"

"I wouldn't know. In spite of the ships rumor mill we're not intimate"

"Oh come on, everyone knows you two are-"

"JUST friends, Lieutenant" Doctor Neric said as he entered. "Shouldn't you be inventorying the surgical tools? I believe that's what Doctor Sarel asked for you to do."

"Yes doctor." She replied.

"Did you need something Seja?" He asked

"Thank you for that. Yes, I need to check some of the Bio-Neural conduits on deck twenty-five for infections and mold. As you know I have to have someone from medical or science assist." She said

"Slime duty?" he said with a sigh. "Okay, but you owe me. Lead me to your gel pack." He grabbed his tricorder and a hypo as well as several vials of various serums. As they proceeded to the turbolift they passed Ensign McLaren "Hey Daniel, where you headed?" Dr Neric asked.

"Ships lounge; I still have community service from when I got sick. Then I have to head back up to the bridge, Vermillion needs me to cover the helm for him. He didn't say why. Hey Seja, are we still on for tomorrow?" he said

"For dinner? Sure." She replied as they walked on silently. They entered the turbolift and headed down to deck twenty-five, which was occupied mainly by machinery and the ships deuterium bladder.

"I don't think I've ever been on this deck, why is it so hot?" Doctor Neric asked

"Its uninhabited and used for some of the shipboard machinery, especially the environmental processes. The environmental controls don't regulate it for ambient temperatures since no one lives here, and the machinery expends heat and moisture as it works. Unfortunately that creates a much better situation for molds and bacteria that are harmful to the bio-neural conduits."

"Then why house bio-neural conduits on this floor? I know they're not everywhere, so why here? This seems like one of the worst possible places for them."

"They're the fastest for decision making, and processing. On this floor they help with power flow regulation for both environmental controls and deuterium flow synchronization, both highly critical systems." She said as she walked over to one wall "I believe the gel packs start behind this panel." She pried loose one of the panels along the wall and the doctor came over, tricorder open, scanning. "There is some mold spores on the exterior of the gel packs bag, but its clean inside."

"Ok, I'll note it and make minor adjustments to the mold filter in main engineering. There are about fifteen more panels to check on this floor." They continued working close together, panel off, scan, notes, panel reattach, getting to the last panels, one set above Seja's head height. "alright, last one, it seems to have been offline for a while, no one has bothered finding out why, interesting." She said as she reached for the lower edge of panel"I need assistance with this; it seems stuck and is too high for me to get a good grip." Doctor Neric came up behind her, reaching the panel and pulling to no avail. "I think its stuck, perhaps if we both pull" she said as she reached up, fingers wedging themselves under the lower edge of the panel, leaning her lower torso back for leverage and pressing lightly against the Doctor. The panel finally popped off but with enough force to fly behind both Seja and the doctor, causing Seja to lose her balance and fall onto the Doctor, knocking him down as well. She was briefly dazed and opened her eyes to find herself on top of the doctor, nose to nose, looking into his big brown eyes. Without reason hesitation or thought, she kissed him, deeply and passionately on the lips. The doctor, momentarily shocked at this was frozen, and then kissed back they began making out, and just as suddenly as they started, Seja pulled away, saying "we really should get back to work."

"Oh, okay. Can we finish what we started later?" said the doctor

"The kissing? Yes, it's been a while since I enjoyed intimacy with anyone, "replied Seja, standing up and offering the doctor a hand up. The doctor took her hand and stood up, saying "just to be sure we're on the same page, are you just wanting something physical or an actual relationship?"

"I'd prefer to keep things casual, no commitments outside of remaining Kirk free." She said, turning back to the panel.

"Kirk? I don't understand." He said with confusion.

"Sorry. Romulan word, I'm not sure of the etymology, it's essentially any S.T.D contracted from a foreigner." She said.

"You have an interesting language, I truly admire your tongue." The doctor said with a mischievous laugh, scanning the bio-neural gel packs. The tricorder started emitting a high pitched rhythmic sound. "Hang on, we have an infection. Looks like Staphylococcus aureus, that's a rare one. I'll need to get a sample for study; it's nearly unheard of outside of Earth and extremely rare even there. There's something else on the gel pack, blood, there's dried droplets of blood, human blood, type AB positive, it looks like it's been there for quite some time, maybe months."

"There's a ventilation shaft right above that gel pack Dr., can you scan it for any biological materials?" Seja asked.

"Certainly, yes, same blood, I see traces of other various bodily fluids dried in the shaft, which seems to be where this blood came from. We need to call security" Seja hit her communicator asking for security to come to their location, explaining what they found and in a few minutes a several security personnel arrived who briefly asked for statements from both and copies of their tricorder logs. "We'll take it from here" said one of the security people. Seja and Neric walked back to the turbo lifts "I need to head back to engineering" said Seja.

"And I should be getting back to sickbay" said the doctor. Each entered a separate turbo lift and went off to perform their duties. Doctor Neric's mind kept wandering back to making out with Seja, her soft lips and her olive skin pressing against him, he wondered how this would change the dynamic relationship between the two of them and the rest of the group, finally wondering how well Ensign McLaren would take this idea. The turbo lift arrived at the fourteenth floor, the doors opened, and standing in front of him was Daniel McLaren. "Hey doc, how's it going?"

"Oh, good Daniel, just got done doing Seja. I mean working with Seja. Slime duty, you know, checking for disease in the um, things. And you?" stammered the doctor as he exited the turbo shaft.

"I'm good; I'm heading off to the bridge. See you around." Daniel said, smiling brightly as he got in. The turbolift door shut and Daniel was heading up, wondering why the doctor looked so distressed. The turbolift stopped on the next floor with Ensign Bera getting on, they smiled and said hello to one another. Bera was concentrating on a PADD in her hands, Daniel was very upbeat and excited; he had just finished his final day of community service for the ships lounge and would be welcomed in there now as a patron rather than a troublemaker. He was being noticed and asked to perform additional duties by the bridge crew, which looked good on his resume; he was starting to have a slight romance with someone he thought he'd never like. Briefly lost in thought he said out loud "I wonder what Captain Kirk would think."

"About what?" asked Bera.

"Just my life. He's a hero of mine, you know, one of the best officers of Star Fleet"

"Really? I'd always heard he was a racist, pompous, womanizing imbecile." Bera said

"Nah, he was a great guy. Next time we go to Earth I'll take you to the James T. Kirk museum in Riverside. It'll be great." He said.

The turbolift arrived at the bridge with Bera and Daniel both exiting, Daniel heading to the Helm, taking over for Lieutenant Vermillion who headed to the Captains office. Ensign Bera also headed into the Captains office the door closing behind her. The captain noticed her and said "Ensign, this is a private meeting, I need you to come back later" "wait Captain, I asked her to come here, she has an idea" said Lieutenant Register. Bera walked over to him, looking at him for reassurance before looking at the captain. "Ma'am, Lieutenant Register told me where we are, I'm familiar with this region of space. Based on what I've seen and experienced I'm assuming we're trying to capture someone dangerous, and in this area that can only mean the Terrorist Bruce Jackson. Now, assuming he does have a base on an asteroid near the border we would need to send a shuttle in for reconnaissance. I think a shuttle with sensors comparable to a galaxy class vessel and having its own cloak would be the way to go. We send in a small team to observe and then report, once they're done they come back here and we can either send in a few shuttles loaded with people to capture Bruce or we call in a special forces team. The Omega team has their own Defiant class ship docked at starbase thirty-seven, that's not more than an hour from here at warp 9. I have a full report right here." Bera said as she laid her PADD on the captain's desk.

"There are some things I haven't mentioned to anyone. No one below Captains rank knows there was a strike attempted by the Omega's two weeks ago. They are missing and presumed to be killed in action, and their ship was captured. It was then used to destroy four Breen freighters, two Breen warships and attack a Breen base. The Breen declared war, Starbase thirty seven was lost forty eight hours later. We negotiated a cease fire after twelve hours of negotiation and territorial loss. The cease fire will be ended in three more days if we do not capture Bruce and his people and turn them over to the Breen, and they have a Defiant class ship, with a cloaking device. Now, Bera, onto your proposal, it's brilliant, and I want to do it. There's one problem. The designers and builders of the Diomede at the Daystrom institute have a clause in the contract signed by Starfleet when they gave it to us that says it can't be used for military purposes. Even if it worked I'd be facing a court marshal and dishonorable discharge if I authorized it."

"What about copying the cloak and sensors they used and adding to a regular shuttle?" Bera suggested.

"I've thought about that too, but even if we could get away with reverse engineering like that, which, incidentally, is also forbidden in the contract, we don't have the time or the parts to refit a shuttle. Mr. DePalma, I believe you have an idea?" the captain said.

"Yeah, except it's a bit tricky. If I had a choice I'd rather go with a variant of Bera's idea. We have on board some equipment that's going to the mining colony on Cestus IV, including visually guided tunneling devices. We can hook one of these devices up to a photon torpedo's guidance system and manually steer it through the asteroid field, straight into Jackson's camp, get visual proof he was there, and at that point either order him to surrender or threaten to detonate. They might surrender; they'll probably flee; in which case we grab them as they exit the field, or they might think it's a bluff, attack the torpedo and cause it to detonate. I believe the exact language of the cease fire was either arrest of Bruce and his compatriots or proof of their deaths."

"And what happens if the Breen accuse us of forging the evidence? A recording can like that can be simulated, and a photon torpedo gets rid of all biological matter, outside of the recording there'd be nothing" said Commander Valientine.

"Come on, you really think the Breen want a war?" replied DePalma

"If I were Breen and felt the Federation was in a weak position that's what I'd do" retorted Valientine.

"Star Fleet wouldn't approve of us using terror tactics, even on terrorists. Bera, you have knowledge of the Breen, what do you think they'd do?" asked Captain Dallas.

"They will do exactly as Commander Valientine said, and any Breen leader that wouldn't go for war as the first option would be replaced quickly by someone who would" she replied.

"Commander Valientine, ideas?" the captain asked

"The only option I see left is to send several shuttles of armed security and command personnel down in a full frontal assault. We hit hard, we hit fast."

"Why only security and command? We'll need people from medical and science to scan and treat injuries" asked Lieutenant Register.

"I feel that they may not be up to the task at hand, lieutenant. We need people with advanced training in use of a phaser, people who will run quickly and quietly." replied the commander

"Lieutenant Registers right, we need all available hands. Okay, we send five teams of five each, four security or command people, one science or medical. But first we make a modified version of Lieutenant DePalma's idea, we send out a class thirteen s probe with visual recorder, it does a quick pass across the meteor that's giving off radio signals to confirm that Bruce is there and it's not just a decoy. DePalma, get with Tourej and let me know when the probe is ready to launch. It will take about thirty minutes to get there and do its job, I want our people armed and in shuttles the moment it launches. We need top flyers in the shuttles, think about that when selecting your teams. Questions?"

"Yes ma'am, you said five teams? That would be me, DePalma, Register, Valientine, and who?" asked Lieutenant Vermillion.

"Myself, Lieutenant, and don't start with that 'the Captain must not go on potentially dangerous away missions' garbage. Any other questions? No? Dismissed" They all filed out, except for Bera, who hung back. "Captain, may I have a word?"

"Sure, there's millions in our various languages, pick whichever ones you want." She said playfully.

"I'm sorry for bothering you and I realize you might not be able to answer this, but why the internal blindness? I understand not letting the ship communicate with people back home or outside of this vessel right now, but there's standing orders for command and security to not socialize, and science basically has to sit around doing nothing, I just don't understand."

"I know Bera. I hated giving the order, but Starfleet is worried that what happened with the omega may have been an inside job. We think that one or two of the Omega may have been part of Bruce Jackson's movement, and betrayed their comrades. The Omega's ship, the Lone Wolf had access to security codes for half the ships in Star Fleet; security throughout Starfleet may be compromised. There are people on this ship right now I don't know if I can trust."

"But you're telling me, and I'm security."

"You're also Bolian. Bruce Jackson's movement is highly xenophobic. They only take humans; they were a branch of the Marquis that splintered off, they specialized in attacks on Breen space. During the Dominion war Star Fleet ignored their tactics because they were providing a distraction for the Breen. Now our allowing him to continue has put us on the edge of a war that we may not survive."

"Thank you captain" Bera said as she left.

She walked out of the turbo lift and saw Lieutenants Vermillion and DePalma both talking with Ensign McLaren, it sounded like they were each arguing over who got the Ensign on their team. She walked up to Lieutenant Register and said "orders, sir?"

"First, take these P.A.D.D.'s down to main engineering, sickbay and science, they contain duty rosters for the away mission, they are for the department heads only. Then head down to the weapons room, help lieutenant French with double checking the charge on all the reserves, he'll also need you to help with distribution. Make sure we get a record of who gets which rifle and stun grenades. I'm leaving you in charge of security on board.

"But sir, I'm fully healed and -" she started to protest.

"No buts Ensign. We need someone the guard the fort, and I can't get Dr. Sarel to sign off on your away team status for twenty-four hours."

"Doctor Sarel? But I was treated by Dr. Neric." She said

"I know, Dr. Sarel is in charge of sickbay on the ship and disagreed with Dr Neric's assessment for returning to duty, Dr. Sarel does that, it's his department and unfortunately for you it's his right, so you're stuck here, for what it's worth, I'm sorry. Now get going."

"Yes sir" she replied as she headed for the turbo lift.

She stopped in Sickbay first and handed Dr Sarel the duty roster, turned and began to leave when Dr Sarel said "Ensign, you have not been given permission to leave."

"Sir?" she said

"You kids these days, you never salute a superior, you never ask permission, you all run around without any respect for command or authority, do they not teach respect at the academy any more? Now, you're Sarah right? Odd name for a Bolian"

"It's Bera, sir."

There you go again; not asking permission to speak, but you're the one with the bite. I need to inspect it. Remove your top." He said as he stood up and walked closer

"Sir, its fine, really, Dr Neric did a great job." She said as she pulled her top up.

"Ensign, I will remind you that I am a Commander and in charge of all Medicine on this ship. I will tell you if your injury has been treated properly."

"Yes sir"

He inspected her injury, and then began fondling her breast, caressing them, gently kissing them.

"DOCTOR! I don't think that's appropriate-"said Bera, squirming to get away.

"Relax Ensign, Vulcans are one of the few species that can successfully mate with Bolians" he said as he caressed her thigh.

"NO DR SAREL!" She said before pushing him away

He stood back up and glared at her "I could have you thrown in the brig for pushing a superior officer! Do you want that?"

"If you come near me again, Commander, you will be the one in the brig, on charges of sexual assault "she said, assuming a fighting stance.

"You'd have to prove it, Ensign. Right now it's your word against mine" he said calmly.

"Actually, Commander, no, it's not. Perhaps you missed the memo about security personnel being required to keep their communicator badges on record mode as long as they're on duty. I can play your words back for you if you'd like."

"Fine. You could have gotten a promotion, but if you would rather do it the hard way, Ensign, be my guest." He said

"You know this thing is still recording, right sir?"

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" he yelled at her.

She saluted him as she left.

She next headed down to science, finding Commander Starling sitting at her station, coffee next to her elbow, and a stack of P.A.D.D.'s in front of her. She stood before the Commander, coming to attention and saluting before saying,"Sir, duty rosters," as she held out the P.A.D.D.

"Thank you ensign, just set it next to the others, you may go." She said, not bothering to look up at Bera.

She turned and left, feeling sorry for the Commander. She headed to Engineering next, looked around and didn't see Commander Tourej anywhere; she did see Ensign Thorsen working at a duty station. She approached him saying "Ulrik, do you know where Tourej is? I'm supposed to give this to her.

"Yeah, actually, she went down to tinker with the Anti-matter injectors with Seja, she loves tinkering." He said, concentrating on the terminal.

"Okay, I'll head down there." She said as she left.

Ulrik continued his work; he had finished the primary research aspect of his work and was now creating a model as to how to help lessen the impact of warp fields on space. He was starting to get odd readings, as if some unknown energy signature was affecting the warp field. It was getting stronger incrementally stronger, and looked like it could potentially create a cascading resonance wave within the warp field. Ulrik was about to call Lieutenant Commander Tourej when Seja walked in. "hey, you're needed on the bridge."

"Why didn't they Com me?"

"Heightened silence status. They're worried we might be listened to electronically, so everything that can be is being communicated manually. There's an away team mission starting now, Daniel and Neric are on it. I'm in charge of engineering until it's over, Bera's running security, you'll be running the ops station."

"How do you know all of this? Is it Captain Seja now?"

She blushed "Do you really think Starfleet computer systems are hard for me to crack? I can give you all the passwords for everyone on this ship above the rank of Lieutenant." She said playfully

"You really are scary sometimes." He replied as he stood up.

"Yeah and don't forget it." She called to him as he walked out.

He arrived on the bridge, Lieutenant Commander Tourej was sitting in the Captains chair, with Commander Foster, the ships counselor, was sitting in the first officer's seat. Bera was at the tactical position. Tourej noticed Ulrik and said "Ensign, I need you to take the Operations position. A probe was launched about 20 minutes before you got here, data will be coming in shortly, feed it through the ships main computer and route it to all the shuttles." She said

"Shuttles, sir?" he asked, slightly bewildered as he took the seat.

"Yes ensign. The away teams are in shuttles, they'll need the info" Replied Commander Foster.

"Yes sir" Ulrik replied. "Data coming in. transferring to awaiting shuttlecraft, wait, no, something is redirecting our signal, I cannot reach the shuttles we are being jammed."

"What? Scan the area the signal is being redirected from" said Tourej.

"It's something right below us, oh dear, my console is locked." Ulrik said, unable to get the station to respond to any commands.

"Computer what is affecting the ships systems"

"Unable to comply. All requests must be submitted through The New Earth Starship Lone Wolf" Replied the computer.

"New Earth Starship? Oh no, no, no, no, this is bad!" said Lieutenant Commander Tourej,

"Who's New Earth?" asked Lieutenant Commander Foster

"Bruce Jackson's Militia, they're the reason we're out here" replied Tourej

"Oh, Bollocks! How the hell did they get control of our computer system" said Foster.

"Easily" was the reply from the turbo lift.

Suddenly everyone turned to look towards the doors of the turbo lift, and they were faced with twenty human males each equipped with a phaser rifle and other assorted energy weapons. Two of the assailants had weapons pointed directly at Ensign Bera, while a third stood behind her with a knife at her throat.

"I'd recommend that you toss your weapons down unless you want my men to have additional reasons for slaughtering this blue skinned beast" one of the men said as he stepped forward from the crowd. He was average height, hair short, sort of a sandy blonde, no facial hair, dressed in a Star Fleet uniform from twenty years ago "Hello everyone, my name is Bruce Jackson, and I'll be your captor" he said, casually strolling over to the Captains chair. He looked directly at Lieutenant Commander Foster and said "Now, in answer to your question, I have a Defiant class vessel that overpowered your computer system, we then moored it directly to your ship, right below the captain's yacht." He faced Tourej, saying "As long as you all cooperate, we will not hurt you. This applies to all life forms on this ship, even you. I'm going to open the in ship communications system, and I'd like you, whatever you are, to ask all crewmembers to return to their quarters for the time being. My men are will begin systematically sweeping the decks and Jefferies tubes, looking for anyone not complying. If they find someone, that person as well as anyone on the ship who is related to them will be executed. Do you understand me?" he asked, circling around her and sitting in the captain's chair.

"Yes, I understand." Tourej said.

"Your name?" he asked

"Lieutenant Commander Tourej, Chief of Engineering"

"And what species are you?"

"I come from mixed parents. My father was half Klingon and half Vulcan. My mother was half Klingon and half Betazoid" she said proudly.

"Good God, that's disgusting. You're a genetic garbage dump, aren't you" he said, several of his men chuckled. "Computer, open in ship communication system for Lieutenant Commander Tourej"

"Attention, all personnel, this is Lieutenant Commander Tourej, this is an emergency situation. Please return to your quarters and await further instructions."

"Excellent job, mutt. Okay personnel, this is Bruce Jackson, you may have heard of me and my noble movement dedicated to restoring humans to their glorious and God given role as the dominant power in the Universe. Right now, my people are heading down to each and every deck of this ship. We are in control and we would rather not have to hurt you. If you do as your Chief of Engineering has requested, and return to your quarters within twenty minutes of now, you will be fine. However, if we catch you wandering the halls after that point you will be shot on sight and any family members you have here will also be executed. Don't be heroes. Communications off. Gentlemen, start heading down, it's a big ship, lots of space to cover. Jones, I need you to cover sickbay, Jameson, you have engineering, Marks, Libby, you have the shuttle bays. Make sure your positions are covered at all times. You shouldn't have any problems, the computer will respond to your commands not theirs and all shipboard weapons will be fully depleted in about five minutes. Stevens, Kingsley, stay up here."

"What's going to happen with the away team?" asked Lt Commander Foster

"Don't worry, your captain and the rest will be taken care of as non-violently as possible. They are however walking into a trap. This ships Commanding officer, Xavier Valientine, is an old friend of mine; he will be taking good care of the teams.

To be Continued…


End file.
